Thursday, July 5th: Harris Beach to Russian Gulch, CA

[Tynor] Another Long drive today (but not as long as yesterday). But first we went to the beach and saw some really big mussels. Unfortunately, the wind wasn’t fast enough so we couldn’t get our kite up into the air :-(.

Packing up the tent trailer went easier than usual (bad omen?) all of the latches went on just like that! Now we’re driving to Eureka to get lunch.

[Mom] Harris Beach was beautiful. We spent more time there this morning than we should have (given how much driving we needed to do), exploring the beach, exclaiming over the mussels, trying to fly the kite, and digging in the sand.

We actually ended up stopping at Trinidad at a rest stop, and made deli sandwiches for lunch. The kids did gymnastics on the grass for awhile to get the kinks out, and then – back on the road.

Lots more winding roads followed, as we drove down Highway 1 toward Fort Bragg/Mendocino. I had forgotten how up and down and windy the highway along the coast is. Even more so than the windy roads in Oregon! Gorgeous huge trees, though, which I enjoyed though again, the boys were mostly engrossed in movies or Gameboys at that point.

My new motto is never to rely on Internet mapping program (or AAA maps, for that matter) “time estimates” for planning trips. Boy, have they been off the mark. Of course, we also stop for breaks, get food, etc. But it’s still taken us much longer on each of these two days driving than the guesstimates.

We took a bathroom/run-around break at the first State Park/campground we found after emerging at the coast from twisty, hilly Highway 1 to Mendocino. Whew. It's an amazing campground - right on a huge bluff overlooking the ocean, with spots for campers lined up in a row and just drop toilets and water faucets for "facilities." We could see another, larger spot nearby (but still on the bluff) where a number of tents were pitched. Quite the incredible view from that vantage point, but if the weather turns blustery at all, I expect you have to really hunker down.

We got to Russian Gulch just a tad earlier than yesterday’s late arrival, but at least we weren’t as tired. I made a quick dinner (before it got completely dark!) – chicken teriyaki from Trader Joe’s and rice boil-in-a-bag. The rice was an experiment – not great, but sure tasted good when we were hungry and eating outside at the campground. Everyone ate up and went to bed in a much better mood than yesterday.

Our camping spot was weird: just a pull over by the side of the road, with bollards so you couldn’t drive into the site, and then a picnic table and a big “fire ring” that was more like half a trash barrel. One disadvantage of these long days is no campfires and S’mores. :-( But I’m not sure I would have wanted to have a fire in that big barrel anyway.